SALMON FLY, SPINNING LURE, ETC. 349 



" People, as a rule, will not have a salmon fly unless 

 it is a thing of beauty to start with at any rate, and 

 the more they get for their money, especially in the 

 wing, the better they are pleased. They may be right. 

 All I know is that I myself will not use a thick winged 

 fly, and generally cut about half the feathers out of 

 a shop tied one. 



" Lower down the Wye, the water is not good fly 

 water, and a lot of fish are caught, in fact all, I believe, 

 with an artificial minnow. 



" I am afraid I have not got a Kodak of my 

 seventeen fish, it was so dark the following day, that 

 they could not be taken unfortunately, or else 

 you should have one with pleasure. 



" On my particular day, I may say, in case it 

 interests you, that I only actually played one other 

 fish the tenth hooked and if I remember rightly 

 just touched three others. It was all done between 

 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., on half a mile of water. 



' With regard to what you say about salmon 

 taking a March Brown, I may say that on this river 

 it is on the whole, day in and day out, about the best 

 fly you can put on in sizes 7 and 8. Anyhow, in 

 those sizes, a March Brown and a Thunder and 

 Lightning are my favourites. Of course, one uses 

 the latter fly in all sizes up to 5/0 and it is equally 

 good in all. 



" I am, yours very truly, 



" ARTHUR DE WINTON." 



Mr. J. Arthur Hutton, the well-known authority on the 

 scale markings of salmon, wrote to the author as follows : 



" 2ist November, 1913. 



" DEAR SIR, In reply to your letter, it is quite 

 impossible to lay down a hard and fast rule as to the 

 use of the fly and minnow, but I am quite sure a 

 good many fishermen, through their prejudices against 

 spinning, lose many chances of catching salmon. I 



